Marble- and/or granite- and/or natural stone- and/or quartz sand-based agglomerate materials are known in the background art, the mixing of which makes it possible to obtain an artificial product which can be used as cladding and/or flooring material in general or to obtain made-to-measure pieces such as steps, bathroom and kitchen worktops, window sills, etc.
Attempts are often made to give especially the visible surface of the object a particularly attractive appearance with considerable visual impact, sometimes resorting to the inclusion of metal powders or grits or of pieces of precious stones of various kinds, glass, mirrors, etc.
These attempts, consisting of the addition of colorants or of inserts of shiny material, have made it possible to obtain a product with a good degree of shine and an acceptable degree of surface mechanical resistance.
Natural stone does not present isotropic reflecting properties, which can on the other hand be achieved with an artificial agglomerate material which is stone-based together with other inserts.
These agglomerate materials are normally produced according to a production procedure which includes the following working stages:                a first stage in which the various materials making up the agglomerate are crushed;        a second stage in which the crushed materials are mixed, in order to obtain as homogeneous a product as possible, during which binders, for example resins, are added;        a third stage in which the crushed materials are levelled and rolled;        a fourth stage in which the crushed and rolled material is loaded into a distribution hopper;        a fifth stage in which the hopper is unloaded in order to load the crushed and rolled material into a distributor;        a sixth stage of relative reciprocating translation of the distributor above special dies with simultaneous mixing of the material contained in the distributor;        a seventh stage in which the material is discharged from the distributor into the dies designed to give the agglomerate material a well-defined configuration, for example of a tile or panel;        an eighth stage in which the agglomerate is pressed and compacted;        a ninth stage in which the tile or panel is hardened at a predetermined temperature;        a tenth stage in which at least one side of the tile or panel is smoothed and polished;        an eleventh stage in which the tile or panel is cut to size, chamfered, gauged and flared, followed by unloading of the end product.        
It should be remembered that the percentage of resin used in the above-mentioned mixtures is particularly important and should be established with great care and precision.
If the quantity of resin is too high, in fact, the sheet obtained will be too soft, with a closed-cell honeycomb structure which, during the subsequent vibration and vacuum pressing, does not allow the air trapped in the mixture to be released.
If, on the other hand, the quantity of resin is insufficient, the mixture will be particularly dry, with little cohesion and insufficient amalgamation during vibration pressing.
It is known, moreover, that the hardness and the resistance to rubbing wear of sheets of agglomerate material can be increased by adding very fine silicon sand or powder to the mixture, which does not become impregnated with resin and acts as a filler material, allowing, at the same time, a reduction in the quantity of resin to be used.
One disadvantage is represented by the fact that while this agglomerate material presents sufficient mechanical features that allow it to be used for external cladding, it does not maintain its features unaltered over time.
One of the main problems that modern society has been forced to deal with as a result of the mass diffusion of IT products is the disposal and recycling of products and materials normally used in computers.
These materials include, for example, the wafers of very pure silicon used as a support for microchips, and for which an appropriate way of disposal and recycling has not yet been found. It would in any case be desirable to identify a method for the disposal and recycling of this material which is in itself expensive, but cannot be used again.
Document FR-A-720972 discloses a material containing silicon, suitable for covering a number of different articles and for building up a protecting layer on these articles. Chemical Abstracts, vol. 115, No. 10, 9 September 1991 & JP-A-03075251 describes a mortar composition comprising a small amount of metallic silicon powder. Document SU-A-1763424 discloses the use of silicon deriving from metallurgical and chemical industry. Here silicon is mixed in water together with many other components such as refractor clay and graphite.